Conventionally, absorbent articles, which are worn by a wearer for the purpose of absorbing and retaining body fluids of the wearer, have been known. Such an absorbent article comprises a surface side sheet which allows the permeation of the body fluids, a back face side sheet which does not allow the permeation of the body fluids, and an absorbent body which is disposed between the abovementioned sheets. With the absorbent article, body fluids are absorbed and retained by the absorbent body so as to prevent the leakage of the body fluids to outside through the back face side sheet.
The part of the above-described absorbent article which is fitted to the crotch of a wearer must be narrow in width to make the wearer comfortable. The absorbing ability of the absorbent article is thereby lowered.
Also, the width of the absorbent article changes due to movements of the wearer, and this causes kinking, twisting, etc., of the absorbent article. It was thus difficult to fit the absorbent article to the crotch of the wearer to make the wearer comfortable.
In order to solve the problems, the following absorbent article has been proposed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-354601). That is, an absorbent article includes a surface side sheet, a back face side sheet joined to the surface side sheet, and an absorbent body interposed between the surface side sheet and the back side sheet. Central parts in the lengthwise direction of the surface side sheet and the absorbent body have bellows-like cross-sectional shapes, and the back face side sheet is laminated onto the absorbent body of the bellows-like shape.
With this arrangement, the surface side sheet and the absorbent body expand and shrink to follow the movements of a wearer, so that the length in the width direction of the absorbent article changes. The kinking and twisting of the absorbent body can thereby be prevented not to make the wearer uncomfortable.
The above-described absorbent article is manufactured by the following method. That is, a surface side sheet and a absorbent are laminated and then press-formed to a bellows-like shape by a rotating drum, and thereafter, a back face side sheet is laminated onto the absorbent body. Therefore, by the press-forming, the absorbent body tended to harden and the absorbent body could become high in density to decrease absorbing ability.